Get the best from this site. We use cookies to improve your user experience. For more information, including how to disable website content personalisation, see more about cookies.
If you need to see a social worker please contact children's safeguarding and social work.
Contact children's safeguarding and social work
For more information on the services provided please see our Guide to children's safeguarding and social work for parents and professionals.
The Camden Model of Social Work is a 'systemic' model of social work, based on strong relationships between social workers and families and informed by their experiences. This means that we work with families to find common ground, reaching a fuller understanding of the pressures they are facing and being responsive to them, while ensuring positive and timely change for children.
Our model of practice was created with the help of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, whose experience of working with families in a therapeutic way helped us to look more closely at how we work to ensure we actively listen to children, staff and partners to get the best possible outcomes for our children and families.
Understanding what works best for parents means they can make any changes needed to improve the lives of their children.
Safeguarding children is something where we all have a role to play - parents, carers, residents and professionals, especially those who work with children and young people. If you are worried about a child or young person please call 020 7974 3317 (out of hours: 020 7974 4444). If you think a child is in immediate danger you should call the police on 999.
You don’t have to be absolutely certain about your suspicions - if you have a feeling that something’s not right, talk to your local children’s social care team who can look into it.
The common assessment framework (CAF) is a standard approach for professionals to assess children and their families, to enable any additional needs they may have to be identified early and to help services respond in a more co-ordinated and integrated way.
When a professional is concerned about a child or young person’s progress and identifies additional needs that cannot be met by universal services, they will use a CAF referral form - also known as an eCAF when completed online.
In Camden, eCAF referrals are accessed via the Mosaic case management system. Existing Mosaic users can access the CAF referral via their usual Mosaic logins. Professionals, who are not Mosaic users can use the CAF referral form here to make referrals.
Camden’s learning and development service offers training in how to use eCAF, which practitioners must attend before they can have access to it. We would encourage you to do so. However, for those professionals not already on the Mosaic system who need to make a referral, you can download a CAF form here, fill it in and email it to us at:
Before making a referral, professionals should tell the parent or carer that a referral is being made and seek their consent - except where there are clear child protection concerns, when a referral can be made without parental consent.
We commissioned an innovative piece of research, which involved parents interviewing other parents and social work professionals about their experiences of the child protection system and how it could be improved.
This project, called 'Camden Conversations', was carried out in collaboration with Royal Holloway, University of London and Surviving Safeguarding, with the support of Camden Safeguarding Children Board. You can read and download their report and a summary of it below: